LAND VALUATION COURT BILL

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25607, 23 September 1948, Page 4

LAND VALUATION COURT BILL

CRITICISM BY OTAGO FARMER NATIONALISATION FEARED (P.A.) DUNEDIN, September 22. “I think the attention of every farmer in New Zealand should be drawn to the Land Valuation Court Bill, sponsored by the Minister of Lands (Mr C. F. Skinner),'which is now before the House of Representatives,” said Mr John Andrew, national vice-president of Federated Farmers, in a statement to-day. “When the Land Sales Act was introduced during the recent war an assurance was given by the Government that this bill was introduced for a specific purpose and would have a life of five years. The present bill indicates that the Government had a long-term purpose in view when the first bill was introduced some five years ago.

“The Land Valuation Court Bill goes much further and perpetuates all the vicious features of the old act which, because of the need to have returned men settled on the land, farmers were prepared to accept at the time. The new bill appears to be only the next step in the Government’s avowed intention of wholly nationalising the land.

“The question is: Is this the forerunner of measures necessary to implement completely the Government’s purpose or its Left Wings purpose? “We must cease following the line of least resistance, which has been the tendency in many countries when faced with increasing bureaucracy.”